Ateneum

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The ateneum

The Ateneum (i.e. Athenaeum ) is an art museum in the Finnish capital Helsinki . It is part of the Finnish National Gallery and houses the country's most important art collection.

history

The Ateneum goes back to the collections of the Finnish Art Association ( Suomen Taideyhdistys ) founded in Helsinki in 1846 . These were first exhibited in public in 1863, which is considered to be the birth of the Finnish National Gallery. In 1887 the Finnish National Gallery received the Ateneum, a building specially built for it.

building

Busts of the architect Bramante , the painter Raffael and the sculptor Phidias

The museum is located in the center of the city on Bahnhofsplatz in a building erected in 1887 based on plans by Theodor Höijer . The Ateneum is one of the most important examples of Neo-Renaissance architecture in Finland. The facade of the building is adorned with sculptures and reliefs created by Carl Sjöstrand that symbolically represent the arts. Above the main entrance there are busts of the architect Bramante , the painter Raffael and the sculptor Phidias . The triangular gable is supported by four caryatids , which stand for the four classical art directions of architecture, painting, sculpture and music. The tympanum of the triangular pediment is provided with a group of figures depicting the allegorical goddess of art. Below the group of figures is the Latin inscription Concordia res parvae crescunt (“Small things grow through harmony”). Between the windows on the second floor there are also reliefs by Ville Vallgren depicting various Finnish and international artists.

collection

The Ateneum is the largest art museum in the country. The largest part of the collection - over 4,300 paintings and more than 750 sculptures - is made up of the works of Finnish artists from the period between 1700 and 1960. The most famous works by Finnish artists such as Albert Edelfelt , Eero Järnefelt , Pekka Halonen , Akseli Gallen-Kallela , Helene Schjerfbeck and Hugo Simberg are exhibited here.

The international collection of the Ateneum is smaller with over 650 works, but it is with works by Vincent van Gogh , Paul Gauguin , Edvard Munch , Auguste Rodin , Francisco de Goya , Paul Cézanne , Marc Chagall , Eugène Delacroix , Amedeo Modigliani , Ilja Repin, among others and Anders Zorn are also very top-class.

Web links

Commons : Ateneum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 60 ° 10 ′ 12 ″  N , 24 ° 56 ′ 39 ″  E